Tapers and Tweets

Today I ran nine beautiful miles on the Towpath in Peninsula.  I started from Lock 29 with Renee, Kathy, and Carrie, and we ran for five miles before the Turtle training session.  Then I ran with my favorite band, Gogol Bordello, for the last four.




This is such a cute video, and it has the bonus of being one of the few "clean" Gogol Bordello songs I can post here.  I am in love with Eugene Hutz, the lead singer with the sweet 'stache.  My husband and I have an agreement: if Eugene ever calls for me,  I am outta here.

Anyway, I was running and zoning, and I passed a couple with my typical warning, "Passing on your left. . .unless I die first."  I thought I heard my name, but I was still in music mode, so it didn't register until I heard it a second time.  I turned around.

"Are you Stephani?" the gentleman asked.

"Yes," I said, wondering if the Turtles had passed a message on to me somehow.  You see, when my running peeps and I get separated on a path, we rely on people (usually the bikers) to relay messages for us.  We usually say things like, "When you see a woman wearing a neon pink shirt that says 'I'd rather be drinking,' ask her to turn around at the four mile mark."  So, it was for this reason that I thought I'd be getting a message.

"I follow you on Twitter," he said, extending his hand to shake mine.  Holy schmoly!  What are the odds of that?  Anyway,  I hope I remembered this correctly, but my newfound friend's name is Michael, and he found me by reading my posts in the Fairlawn-Bath Patch online.  Michael and his friend and I discussed the Cleveland Marathon, which is coming up next Sunday.  I will be running the half, and Michael and his friend will be run-walking the 10k.  They will love the 10k; I ran it last year and I had a blast.  Remember this review?

I am so happy that I met someone through running AND social media.  I used to think that Twitter was, well, for twits, but now I realize that I have connected with so many people from whom I learn many great lessons.  Thank you for reminding me of that, Michael.

I would love to meet up with anyone who is running Cleveland next Sunday.  When we all get more information on the staging area, I'll tweet out a meeting time/place for anyone who is interested.

Happy tapering, Peeps!

You know I can't leave you without mentioning Mother's Day, so here is Mike Polk's tribute to mothers.  Well, it's actually his Mother's Day tribute to MILFs.  If Mike Polk or MILFs offend you, don't watch this.  For the rest of you, this is hilarious.


Happy Mother's Day!

Like what you read?  Follow me on Twitter @itibrout.

Lunging the Turtle

This morning I attempted a divided twelve-miler.  Shall I break this one down?  "Attempted" means I didn't reach twelve miles; "divided" means I did seven miles with Leigh, took a gel, changed my shirt, and finished the rest with the Towpath Turtles.  "Twelve" means. . .wait, why am I parsing this? Are you dwelling on my pain?  You're a sadist, aren't you?  AREN'T YOU?

Ok, I've settled down.  Let's move on.

It was a gorgeous morning, perfect temperature for running in a simple long-sleeved shirt and either capris or tights.  I chose to run at Lock 29 in Peninsula, which is a common starting place for runners and bikers.

Beautiful shot of the Cuyahoga River at Lock 29

 It is also a common ending place because of its proximity to The Winking Lizard, one of the best places I know to blow your fitness on beer and wings.

I have written about Leigh before in my post called "Pace?  Isn't That a Salsa?"  She is still about half my age and at least forty pounds lighter than me (see, I've lost weight or hyperbole since that post!), and she still kicks my ass.  I had a plan, though.  This time I brought my phone, and I made sure to take pictures so that she would have to slow down or stop.  I am tricky, all right.  Here is my first shot:

Say hello to my leetle friend!

This is the first deer we saw on the path.  She didn't even want to move when we came up on her.  She just looked at me like, "Please!  You're in MY HOUSE now!  YOU move!"

Leigh and I had a great talk (I made sure she did most of the talking--I am tricky, all right), and we kept the pace at around 10:20. . . except when we didn't.  Anyway, we had a fun run together in a beautiful environment; I was thankful to be able to run, and I was thankful to run with her. I kept thinking, Well, I will make sure to run more slowly in the second part of my run.

Fail.

I was excited to see the Towpath Turtles today as I haven't run with them in quite a while, and four of us got caught up in conversation, and, well. . . I had to resort to my stalling tactic:

Look, Guys!  A bale of Turtles!

They didn't fall for it, so I had to run extra fast to catch up to them. . .and so it goes.  Jen totally took advantage of the situation after the turnaround and sprinted past me, calling back, "I've got to do this while I can!"  Thanks, Badass.

In short, I came up short--11.67.  I didn't even have the energy to push it to 12, and geez, I end up making up that distance by going back and forth in front of my house ALL THE DAMN TIME!!!

Lesson learned:  Do NOT go too quickly on Long, Slow Distance Day.  

Finally, I leave you with Mike Polk's Easter message (if Mike Polk OR Easter offends you, don't watch this):